Statewide, the power that utilities provide is being distributed more reliably than ever, according to a report issued this week by the Public Service Commission.

Customers of 22 regulated utilities can expect to have power more than 99.97 percent of the time, according to Andrew Melnykovych, spokesman for PSC.

Melnykovych said the frequency of outages hasn’t really changed that much but utility companies are doing a better job of restoring power more quickly.

The only PSC regulated utility in this area is Farmers Rural Cooperative based in Glasgow that serves part of seven counties.

That utility had 706 outages in 2007, a total of nearly 3 million minutes. That was down from 992 outages – totaling 5.6 million minutes – in 2006, according to reports filed with the PSC.

Melnykovych said it doesn’t regulate municipal utilities and Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

But local utilities say they, too, have improved their service reliability.

Gary Dillard, president and chief executive officer of WRECC, said his utility’s non-storm related reliability percentage is slightly better than the state average at 99.977. The state’s is 99.974.

That percentage equates to two hours and 15 minutes without power statewide and two hours for WRECC, Dillard said.

“So we are 15 minutes better,” he said. “And we have a goal in our strategic plan to get that percentage to 99.98 by 2012, which would mean about 90 minutes.”

WRECC has 6,000 miles of distribution lines and numerous poles and equipment.

“So we feel good about (the percentage) and want to keep working toward continuous improvement,” he said.

Dillard said that percentage is an average and some neighborhoods have experienced longer outages.

“But we have worked diligently to overcome those distribution problems,” he said.

Bowling Green Municipal Utilities also is right at the state average, according to spokesman Miles McDaniel.

“From 2004 to 2007, we decreased our tree-related outages by 73 percent,” he said. “We weren’t keeping up our right of ways as we would have liked to.”

And then a storm in July 2004 that caused massive outages with fallen limbs changed all that.

“We stepped up our vegetation program,” McDaniel said.

Since then, the utility has been given a “Tree Line USA” award by the National Arbor Day Foundation for its work with “quality tree care practices” and has been recognized as a Reliable Public Power Provider by the American Public Power Association.

In addition to diligent right of way work, McDaniel attributes improved service to continuous maintenance of the system and the new North Mill power substation.